Federal representative Andrew Gee "stands by" his decision to back the Voice despite a landslide result in Orange and the Central West.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Member for Calare quit the National Party in 2022, in part citing its opposition to constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians.
Residents in his electorate proved to be among NSW's biggest opponents to the proposal, with about 70 per cent voting "No."

"Everyone has had a chance to have their say and the votes are in," he told the Central Western Daily in a statement on Sunday.
"In our democracy we all get to make an individual choice. I stand by mine and I respect others making and standing by theirs.
"I've had many people, who voted either way, stop me in the street and at polling booths to say how glad they are that their local member doesn't just tow a party line and do what he's told by the party puppeteers and their machine."
Immediately before voters went to the polls, National Party senator Ross Cadell called for Gee to resign if the Voice campaign failed.
"That's the nasty National Party machine all over, always trying to control what people say, think and do," MP Gee said at the time.
"They hate it when anyone dares to think for themselves instead of towing their precious party line. People have had a gutful of machine politicians.
"The fact that the party has lined up an out-of-town senator to send out a nasty press release like this shows how very worried they are about winning the seat back.
"It's a shame they put more effort into writing vicious press releases than they do actually working on issues like providing proper disaster assistance for our region."

MP Gee told the CWD he hope the Voice result does not spell the end of reconciliation efforts.
"While this referendum has now ended, sadly, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians still exists in so many ways and closing it remains one of the great challenges our country faces," he said.
"I hope that Australians everywhere can come together and find ways to pick up the torch of reconciliation and carry it forward."
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.





